The global DX cluster network is a double-edged sword: it's great for identifying a needed DX station's operating patterns, and revealing propagation openings, but one spot can attract a impenetrable pileup.

well i know very little packet clusters and I have never operated above 10m, but weren't hams living in rural areas then pretty much out of the loop?

not that DX'ers weren't resourceful say in the 1950's, 60's & 1970's -- but it seems to me that achieving honor roll without the internet is comparatively far more impressive.

not to take anything away from those who have attained Honor Roll with the help of the internet -- it is still a HUGE accomplishment that seems way out of this op.s reach.

i realize that huge pile-ups get generated by DX spots and other DX software, but the saavy DX'er can use these tools far better than the common pile-up herd member. (i am not a saavy DX'er, but that seems to me to be a safe extrapolation )

The global DX cluster network is a double-edged sword: it's great for identifying a needed DX station's operating patterns, and revealing propagation openings, but one spot can attract a impenetrable pileup.

Truth and wisdom, AA6YQ! Nail on the head!

A dozen times in the last few months, I've been trawling 10 & 12 in the evenings, listening for those JAs and Pacific stations we hear on the east coast, mostly weak but workable if you're patient, you wait for the right moment, and you're listening to the other op carefully. And then someone puts them on the cluster, and suddenly there are three dozen people tuning up, a few people calling the DX even though they haven't heard him yet, and a couple of guys who send "?" a few times for no reason I've ever managed to figure out. Then a couple of sociopaths start holding down their DIT paddles to show how unhappy they are, and there's no point in trying to work THAT one any longer. :-( And if the DX is operating split, 90% of the people I just mentioned haven't listened enough do hear that it's split so they're doing all that ON the DX's frequency, and then the half-dozen pseudo-helpful goons start sending "UP UP UP" and "LID" over and over.

The cluster can be helpful at times ... but if the darned thing disappeared tomorrow, I'd be happy.

i guess i am in the old school section.yes we called each other when we heard a station needed by another ham. this was taught to me by my elmer, n4bzx. we all had a list of stations needed by each other and kept it updated. me i have dxcc, and the difficult 5 band dxcc.all were by paper cards. sometime you work many stations to get a card from a place. but its time by the river, just keep listening. no net, no spots, just tune around the bands. jim du3/w4rs w4rsps. i am now in the philippines if you wk me, card by ai4u, or lotw, or eqsl.

If your interested in awards and want to do it quick & cheap you can get a free logging program and connect to a spotting cluster then set it to highlight stations that are spotted and use LOTW. I use a free program, Logger32. I can set it to "hold" & show the spots for any time frame I want, I have it set for 45 minutes and I can watch 3 bands at a time as well as the rolling spots for all bands. It will alert me to new countries I need, countries I have worked but not confirmed, countries I have not confirmed and can do it by band and mode. With a good program such as Logger32, HRD, etc. you can upload LOTW with a click, Sync with LOTW for qsl confirmations and keep track of all awards virtually without effort.

And what part of the fact that in order to earn an ARRL award you have to follow the ARRL's rules don't you get?

My statement was about why a ham would not even do eQSL - not ARRL LoTW.

Not everyone uses LOTW, just like not everyone uses eQSL. I used to use eQSL until I kept getting emails asking me to confirm contacts from stations I never worked. I now have WAS and DXCC using only LOTW. I've never had an issue with it, and supposedly it's harder to set up if you are outside the USA.

My only gripe about LOTW is the cost of getting your earned certificates. I got the WAS at no cost, but they want something like $15 for the DXCC certificate, thanks, but no thanks.

If the station you are working doesn't use LOTW, move on and work someone who does.

The global DX cluster network is a double-edged sword: it's great for identifying a needed DX station's operating patterns, and revealing propagation openings, but one spot can attract a impenetrable pileup.

Truth and wisdom, AA6YQ! Nail on the head!

A dozen times in the last few months, I've been trawling 10 & 12 in the evenings, listening for those JAs and Pacific stations we hear on the east coast, mostly weak but workable if you're patient, you wait for the right moment, and you're listening to the other op carefully. And then someone puts them on the cluster, and suddenly there are three dozen people tuning up, a few people calling the DX even though they haven't heard him yet, and a couple of guys who send "?" a few times for no reason I've ever managed to figure out. Then a couple of sociopaths start holding down their DIT paddles to show how unhappy they are, and there's no point in trying to work THAT one any longer. :-( And if the DX is operating split, 90% of the people I just mentioned haven't listened enough do hear that it's split so they're doing all that ON the DX's frequency, and then the half-dozen pseudo-helpful goons start sending "UP UP UP" and "LID" over and over.

The cluster can be helpful at times ... but if the darned thing disappeared tomorrow, I'd be happy.

I can only imagine that most people on this forum will get tired of me saying this, but don't you think that what these LIDS are doing came from the CB radio.I mean, I can remember back 40 something years ago to a time when the CB radio was a nice place. We all had call signs and we acted like ladies and gentlemen.When the Yaesu FT 101 came out and the solid state - cheap - radios came out, sometime after 1974, the scenario changed, and the mentality changed. Then it became who had the loudest radio and the most power. Those battles were usually won by the CB'rs down in Texas with the tall towers and the big amplifiers.This was the very reason why I turned my CB radio off, and this was the very reason why I was so enamored by Amatuer Radio.After 1980, when the CB'rs crapped in their own nests and made it impossible to have a civil conversation on the 23 and then later 40 channels given to them, it was just a matter of time before the Free Banders turned to legalization of their activities, which they called Amateur Radio.I have worked JA's and HA's on phone, 10 meters and 15, with nothing more then 100 watts and a simple antenna.Fortunately I do not measure my self worth by the opinions of others and I don't need wallpaper to tell me my accomplishments.God gave each of us two ears and one mouth. That means that sometimes it is more important to listen then to talk.There is nothing significant about talking to someone from someplace else.. Unless that person was the only ham in the whole country - which I did manage to talk to a guy once in North Korea, it is no big deal in the grand scheme of things.If you want to talk to someone in Japan, move to Japan, or call them on the telephone.I did have an interesting conversation with a guy in Siberia on 10 meters one morning a couple of years ago.That man impressed me more then all of the others.He was operating on a radio he had built out of scrounged parts and he did not have much money. There was no big beam antenna or amplifier or expensive microphone, just this guy with his homebrew radio station. Maybe if it wasn't so important to some people to get all these countries in their log books, we wouldn't have a problem working these DX stations in the first place.

If you call CQ and are from Ohio or Pennsylvania, no one will talk to you because you are not rare DX to them, even though 3 land is the slowest growth per a capita for amateur radio licenses out of most all of the call districts. The Technician's are the whole way up to KC3 - wow~!

If your interested in awards and want to do it quick & cheap you can get a free logging program and connect to a spotting cluster then set it to highlight stations that are spotted and use LOTW. I use a free program, Logger32. I can set it to "hold" & show the spots for any time frame I want, I have it set for 45 minutes and I can watch 3 bands at a time as well as the rolling spots for all bands. It will alert me to new countries I need, countries I have worked but not confirmed, countries I have not confirmed and can do it by band and mode. With a good program such as Logger32, HRD, etc. you can upload LOTW with a click, Sync with LOTW for qsl confirmations and keep track of all awards virtually without effort.

A couple of comments:

- ops who uploaded QSOs to LotW in the past, were turned off by the complexity or lost interest, and never uploaded again still appear on HB9BZA's known LotW participants list, which many applications and services rely on

- there are several levels of LotW confirmation: DXCC entity, WAS State, and VUCC grid

DXLab's LotW database is constructed and distributed ~weekly from HB9BZA's list, but with the addition of "last upload" dates for each entry. You can specify how recently a station must have last uploaded to LotW to be highlighted and announced as an LotW participant. You can also quickly review all of your logged QSOs that were uploaded to LotW and remain unconfirmed, even though your QSO partner has uploaded QSOs to LotW after the date of your QSO.

The "baseline" LotW confirmation covers the DXCC entity, entity-band, and entity-mode. If the QSO was with a US station and your QSO partner specified a US state in the Station Location that he or she used to upload your QSO, then the LotW confirmation also covers the state, state-band, and state-mode. If your QSO was on a band applicable to VUCC and your QSO partner specified one, two, or four grid squares in his or her Station Location, then the LotW confirmation covers each grid-band.

The details of exactly what's confirmed are reported in the results of an LotW QSL Query; some logging applications (like DXLab) interpret these results and highlight missing State or Grid confirmations so you can, if desired, contact your QSO partner and ask them to resubmit your QSO with a complete Station Location.

At present, this "multi-level" LotW confirmation concept is not well documented. I'm working to correct that.

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